Lisel

Lisel is the solo project of singer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and experimental artist Eliza Bagg. Bagg is known as one half of the band Pavo Pavo, and has spent the last few years developing a prolific career in her own rite, from collaborating with indie and electronic acts like Helado Negro and Julianna Barwick, to honing her work as a classical singer, performing in avant-garde operas by Meredith Monk with the LA Philharmonic, to the work of John Zorn and Caroline Shaw.

Lisel grew from Bagg’s desire to turn inwards as a way to get in touch with her own sense of authenticity. “I had found space in the classical world that made sense for me,” says Bagg, “but I realized I needed to make something that was truly mine, that sprung from my own voice.” This led to a year-long writing and recording process, with Bagg waking up every morning to spend time alone with just a microphone and her computer.

“My main instrument is my voice, not a keyboard or a guitar, so I wanted it to be the genesis of every song,” she says. “I was trying to use the resources I had within me, within my body, to make something that feels true about the way we live our lives now, in 2019. That’s why I wanted to focus on my voice—I wanted each song to be literally made out of me.” And Bagg’s voice is a true marvel: intimate and warm while also impossibly crystalline and heavenly, which Pitchfork once compared to “a lovelorn alien reaching out from the farthest reaches of the galaxy.” It’s a worthy instrument from which to construct a world.